A Gryphon Knight Christmas
by Nerdlydelicious
Summary: When Jolly Saint Nick gets put to the sword, it falls to Jaune, Nathaniel, and team CRDL to save Christmas. Will they be successful, or will Christmas be ruined for Vale this year?


**Hello and merry Christmas to you all! I hope you're enjoying this holiday season, and as my present to you all I have written this little one shot.**

 **Now this story will have no affect on the wider "Gryphon Knight universe". It is, essentially, filler. However you can decide for yourself whether or not you want this to be canon for GK is entirely up to you, since it won't affect the wider story.**

 **For anyone reading this who has not before read my fanfic, "Jaune Arc, Gryphon Knight," I will give a brief explanation of that story so you won't be totally lost reading this.  
**

 **Basically Jaune and his team respond to a call for help from a secluded village. When they get there Jaune meets Nathaniel, the last living member of a force of warriors called Gryphon Knights, who were led by Jaune's ancestor Cailan. Jaune is gifted Talon, his ancestor's Gryphon, and told that it is his duty to revive the order to fight Salem and the Grimm, and eventually Team CRDL joins to him to atone for their past actions.**

 **With all that out of the way, ON WITH THE STORY!**

* * *

Jaune's eyes blearily cracked open as his scroll went off. He reached over and took it off of the vanity next to his bed and looked at the caller ID. It was Nathaniel. Jaune frowned, immediately more awake. Nathaniel wouldn't have called him this late at night, especially not on Christmas Eve, without a good reason. After looking over to be sure the others were still asleep he accepted the call and held the scroll up to his ear. "What is it?" He whispered into the phone.

 _"You need to come to my room, immediately. It's urgent."_ Nathaniel sounded concerned, which was cause enough to make Jaune concerned. The squire got of of bed and tried to get dressed while still holding the phone to his ear.

"What's happened?" Jaune whispered, "is it related to Salem?"

 _"No it's..."_ he sighed over the connection. _"You'll see when you get here. Just hurry. Nathaniel out."_

five minutes later Jaune was fully dressed and armored with Brillant Mors slung over one shoulder. He exited his team's dorm silently and shut the door behind himself. He made his way down the hall at a brisk walk wondering what could possibly have his mentor so worked up. A large shadow flew past a window in the hallway, temporarily obscuring the moonlight.

 _"There better be a very good reason you've woken me up,"_ Talon groused.

 _"Nathaniel called me and told me to report to his room. Clearly something's wrong, so I figured you should come too."_

 _"It had best be worth it... Gryphons get hungry when they're woken up early. If this is about him worrying over whether or not his present for Glynda is good enough I'll take his arm off for the trouble."_

Jaune rolled his eyes. He knew Talon well enough to know that the Gryphon was joking.

Mostly.

A door to one of the dorm rooms opened in front of Jaune and team Cardinal stepped out, fully armed and dressed. "Guys!" Jaune said just loud enough to get their attention without waking anyone. He made his way over to them. "Nathaniel woke you guys up too?"

Cardin nodded. "He said there was a problem and we needed to get to his room immediately."

"He said the same to me," Jaune replied as the five boys walked down the hallway.

"Should we be ready for a fight?" Russel asked, his hands resting nervously on his daggers.

Jaune shook his head. "I think if it was that serious Nathaniel would have said something. But... be ready for anything all the same."

The five boys reached Nathaniel's room a bit later. Just before Jaune knocked on the closed door Talon contacted him.

 _"Jaune..."_

 _"What is it?"_

 _"There's a... well... there's a sleigh on the roof. With reindeer attached to it."_

* * *

Jaune pushed open the door to Nathaniel's quarters. "Sir?" He whispered.

"Come in," the knight grunted.

The five boys filed into the room and Dove shut the door behind them. Nathaniel was sitting in a chair in front of a coffee table, a shot glass in one hand and a half empty bottle of whiskey in the other. He tipped the bottle over and filled the shot glass before knocking back the glass and pouring the whiskey into his mouth. Jaune winced. He could count on one hand the number of times he'd seen Nathaniel drink, and if the Gryphon Knight was drinking now then whatever had happened was serious. To his credit though Nathaniel didn't seem the least bit inebriated despite downing half a bottle of strong whiskey.

"What happened?" Jaune asked.

Nathaniel sighed and put the shot glass and bottle on the coffee table. "About thirty minutes ago I woke up to a noise in my room. I moved as little as possible so as to not give the intruder any sign that I was awake. When I opened my eyes I saw someone kneeling in front of my armor stand rummaging around in a large sack. Assuming he was either trying to steal my armor or sabotage it, I grabbed my halberd and struck. He didn't see me coming. My first strike was clean and he died quickly."

Jaune's throat constricted as he began to put the pieces together. "Nathaniel..." he choked out, "who did you kill?"

* * *

Jaune's legs gave out and he fell on the bed as Cardin stumbled and leaned against the wall. Sky was sitting on the floor dumbstruck, Russel made it just a bit further into the room before he joined Sky on the floor, and Dove was leaning against the wall alongside Cardin. Nathaniel was standing in the door way, his hands clasped behind his back and shuffling his feet nervously. "I- I didn't realize it was him," he said weakly. "It was dark, and all I saw was a silhouette at first..."

Jaune groaned as his face fell into his hands. "I don't believe it. You..."

"YOU KILLED SANTA!" shrieked Russel. "Do you realize what this means?!"

"I can see the headlines now," whispered Sky as he rocked back and forth on the floor, his arms clasped around his legs. "Ho ho homicide! Gryphon Knights put Jolly Saint Nick to the sword!"

"Does this mean I'm not getting my big book of dog breeds?" Dove asked, who looked shell shocked.

Cardin pushed himself off the wall. "Okay, okay we just need to remain calm," the ginger boy said as he ran his hands through his hair and took a deep breath. He looked at Jaune. "What do we do?"

Jaune looked at Cardin. "Why are you asking me?"

"Because you're in charge here!"

Jaune waved his hand at Nathaniel. "He's the one in charge here! I've got at least another three years before I'm in charge!"

"He's the one who shanked Santa! He doesn't count right now!"

As the two bickered and Nathaniel mumbled into his hands Russel made his way over to the jolly red corpse. Next to him was a sack that seemed empty. Gingerly stepping his way towards the body as though afraid it would leap up and attack him the squire picked up a sack laying next to Santa and peered into it out of morbid curiosity. "What the hell?"

Everyone looked at him. "What is it?" Jaune asked.

"There's only two things in here. A bottle of lotion and..." he reached into the bag and set the lotion aside then pulled out the other thing. He let out a low whistle. "The limited edition Christmas Playbunny?" His eyes sparkled. "Still in the plastic, never opened, snow bunnies gone wild under the mistlet-" he looked at the others, suddenly remembering he wasn't alone. "I uh... nothing?"

Cardin rolled his eyes and took the bag from Russel. "Those can't be the only things in here, unless Santa was as big of a perv as you are Russel."

"Hey!"

Cardin looked in the bag, then up at his teammate like he'd lost his mind. "Russel, there's a whole case of..." he reached in and pulled it out. He gasped and his eyes gleamed with joy. "A twenty four case of Vale lager?! I've wanted a case of this ever since my stash ran dry-" he looked at Nathaniel, who was staring at him with a raised eyebrow. It suddenly struck Cardin that Nathaniel _was_ a teacher at Beacon, and Beacon didn't allow students to have alcohol on school grounds. He laughed nervously. "Uh... since my stash ran dry, because I never had a stash..."

Nathaniel rolled his eyes. "I killed Santa. I'm in no position or mood to punish anyone right now."

Dove was the next to take the bag. He grinned with joy as he pulled out a massive book. "My big book of dog breeds!"

Sky took the bag next and looked into it. He pulled out a stack of comic books. "Every X-ray and Vav comic all the way up to the latest issue." He said with a childish grin.

As the others pulled items out of the bag Jaune put the pieces together. "The bag is magic," he said as he took it from Sky. "It creates whatever we wanted for Christmas and gives it to us."

 _"So,"_ Talon said as he perched himself on the wall and peered through the window, _"does that mean you got your-"_

 _"Shut up,"_ Jaune mentally hissed as he opened the bag and peered into it. He closed the lip of the bag, his face turning red. Oh yeah, he'd gotten what he wanted for Christmas alright. Talon snickered at Jaune's expense.

Jaune's embarrassment didn't go unnoticed. Cardin looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "Alright, what did you get?"

"Nothing," he said defensively.

Cardin's raised eyebrow showed how little he believed that. The others stared at Jaune expectantly, and the Champion sighed. "Fine... just don't laugh too hard..."

He reached inside and pulled out his Christmas gift. Everyone in the room, even Nathaniel, laughed as Jaune pulled out a life sized Weiss body pillow.

"Dude," cackled Russel, "really?!"

"You got a bottle of lotion and a porn mag," Jaune growled, "don't judge me." That shut Russel up quickly, though it didn't stop the others from laughing.

When they regained control of themselves Nathaniel took the bag and withdrew his own gift. "Another bottle of Whiskey. Lady knows I could use it now." He set it down on the vanity next to his bed. "As fun as getting our gifts was, I think we now need to deal with the big red Goliath in the room." He gestured to the dead man. "What do we do about this?"

 _"I could always eat him,"_ Talon offered.

Jaune stared at the Gryphon in horror. "You're not eating Santa!"

Cardin's eyebrows were poised to fly through his hairline. "What?!"

Jaune waved his hand at Talon. "Ask the cannibal."

 _"Excuse you? It's not cannibalism for me. I'm not a human."_ Talon licked his chops. _"Be a shame to let all that meat go to waste..."_

"I..." Jaune sighed and rubbed his eyes with the palms of his hands. "No, you're not eating Santa. We're not that desperate. Yet."

"While we're dealing with that problem, we have another problem." Dove held up the magic bag. "With Santa gone, who's going to finish Christmas?"

 _That_ got everyone's attention. "Maybe Beacon was his last stop?" Jaune asked hopefully.

"I don't think so guys," Russel said. He held up a roll of parchment. "I just got this off of Saint Nick." He unrolled it and spread it across the bed. The others came over to look at it. It was a map that seemed to have every single settlement on Remnant marked on it. Almost every one of them had a check mark next to them. Except for one.

"Looks like Santa never made it into Vale," Cardin remarked. "This room was probably his first stop here."

"Well... is that such a bad thing?" Dove asked. "I mean it's going to suck for a lot of people, but it won't be the end of the world."

"Don't be so sure," Nathaniel said as he bent over the map. "If you were to wake up on Christmas morning with no presents, how would you feel?"

"Like I said, it would suck and I would feel down about it, but it wouldn't be the e-"

"Exactly, you would feel sad. Imagine if everyone in Vale doesn't get their presents. They wake up tomorrow morning with no presents under tree, and they all feed sad. And when that much negativity is concentrated in one place, what's going to happen?"

They came to the same realization at the same time. "The Grimm," Russel whispered, "they'd swarm Vale."

Jaune sighed. "you guys realize what this means, right?" He reached down and took the hat off of Santa's head. He placed it on top of his head with all the severity of donning his helmet.

"We're going to save Christmas."

* * *

The six of them stood on the roof of Beacon. Before them was a sleigh pulled by eight reindeer.

"Huh, I guess Rudolph isn't real," remarked Sky.

"Maybe they just use him on foggy nights?" Cardin wondered. "I mean, that bright red nose has to be a dead giveaway when it's clear."

"You know, they're pretty cute," Dove said as he reached a hand out to one of the reindeer.

And promptly pulled it back as the Reindeer snapped at him.

"I don't think they like us," Nathaniel said.

"I wonder why," grumbled Jaune as he glared at his mentor.

"Hey!" Russel poked his head out of the sleigh. "Looks like the old man had a few spare bags stashed away in here. There's more than enough for each of us to have one."

"That will make present distribution easier," Jaune said, "but we still lack speed for most of us. I can take Talon across the city, and I suppose a couple of us can fit in the sleigh, but what about the others?"

"I wouldn't rely on the sleigh," Dove said as he rubbed his hand. He'd tried to pet the Reindeer again, but hadn't been able to pull his hand back before getting bitten. His aura was the only thing that had saved his fingers. "I doubt the Reindeer are going to work with us."

Jaune scratched his head. "Well that'll only leave me to take Vale with any speed. What about the rest of you?"

Nathaniel looked at the sleigh, and then at Talon. He rubbed his chin. "Actually..."

* * *

Jaune watched as the now free reindeer flew away in the distance.

 _"I want to go on record as saying I hate this, I hate Nathaniel for thinking of this, and I hate you for going through with this."_

Jaune shrugged as he tied the reins of the sleigh to Talon's saddle. "You know we have to do this. We all have to make sacrifices for the greater good of the people."

 _"Funny, I've yet to see any of you GET STRAPPED TO A SLEIGH!"_

Jaune winced. "I- I'm sure the rest of us will have to give up something before the night is done."

Talon huffed, but didn't complain more. Team CRDL loaded up into the sleigh, each of them carrying a bag. Jaune and Nathaniel had their own bags slung over their shoulders. "The four of you will spread out through the city and get the presents to each house. Nathaniel and I will cover Beacon then help you in Vale."

Cardin nodded. "Got it! On Talon! Hiyah!" He flicked the reins.

Talon turned his baleful gaze on the leader of CRDL and hissed menacingly.

Cardin gulped as the others gathered behind him, turning the larger boy's body into a shield. "Um... please?" He asked nervously.

Talon huffed and rolled his eyes, then took off at a run down the roof of Beacon. The four boys screamed and held on for dear life as they approached the edge of the roof. At the last minute Talon spread his wings and took to the skies, pulling the sleigh behind him.

"So, what are the chances they make it back alive?" Jaune asked.

"The way tonight's been going? I hope they've got their affairs in order." Nathaniel held up his bag. "The sooner we get started, the better. I'll start in the teacher's quarters, then work my way over from there. You start in your team's dormitory and if all goes to plan we should meet in the center of the school."

Jaune nodded. "Got it." The two ran off in opposite directions, magic bags in hand.

* * *

Jaune crept into his team's room and silently shut the door behind himself. Nora's titanic snoring would almost certainly cover any sound he made, but the squire wasn't willing to take a chance. He crept over to Ren's bed and reached in the bag. When he pulled his hand out he was holding a pair of sound proof headphones and a small music player. Snickering, Jaune placed them on Ren's vanity, then moved to Nora.

Jaune reached in and grabbed her present. It hardly budged. He grit his teeth and and grabbed whatever it was with both hands, hauling it out. He placed a massive case of dust grenades next to her bed and wiped the sweat off of his brow. "Not sure I should let her have these..." he muttered, then shrugged. "Eh, it's Christmas." He was about to move on to Pyrrha, but a sudden weight in the bag stopped him. Wondering what else Nora could have wanted he reached into the bag and pulled out the much lighter item.

"Oh no. Oh _hell_ no."

Jaune walked over to the window, opened it, and flung the megaphone out. "Sorry Nora, but there's not enough Christmas spirit in the world to convince me to let you keep that."

Next he moved onto Pyrrha. He pulled out her present, a book. "Huh... one hundred and one ways to show him you're the one. Does Pyrrha have a crush on someone?" He filed that away for later. Whoever it was would be a lucky guy, but if he hurt her Jaune would feed him to Talon in little pieces.

With his team taken care of and Jaune's own present stuffed under his bed where no one would ever see it (hopefully), the squire left the room, shut the door, and went over to team RWBY's room. Normally Jaune would not be able to access their room without one of them letting him in, but Nathaniel had transferred the master code that all teachers had for the dorm doors to Jaune's scroll for the night. He tapped his scroll against the door's lock, and it came open with a soft click. He stepped inside and shut the door behind himself and looked to be sure he hadn't disturbed the girls. The four of them were sleeping peacefully, the Angel's Rose casting a gentle glow across the dark room.

Jaune made his way over to Blake and Yang first. He knelt beside their bunk beds and reached inside the bag, only to freeze when he heard a growl. The squire turned to see Zwei staring at him, his haunches raised and his teeth bared. "Hey buddy," Jaune whispered frantically, "it's me, Jaune." The last thing he needed was for Zwei to start barking and wake the girls up. Or, Lady forbid, attack him. He knew what that Corgi could do when upset, and he doubted he'd survive the dog's ire. Jaune patted his leg. "Come here boy, it's okay."

Zwei cocked his head to one side, then padded over to Jaune and nuzzled his hand. The blonde boy grinned and rubbed the dog's head. "Hey buddy, sorry I woke you up, but I have to get back to work. I gotta save Christmas and all that. In fact..." he reached inside the bag and pulled out a massive twenty four ounce prime cut steak. "Here's your present."

Zwei fastened his teeth onto the steak and walked back over to his doggy bed, dragging the massive slab of meat with him. The black and white corgi plopped down and began chewing on his Christmas present happily.

Crisis averted, Jaune reached in the bag for the first item. He pulled out a bottle of high dollar shampoo, followed by a four pack of... push up bras? Jaune looked at Yang, specifically her chest, then back at the bras. "Huh, well that's disappointing." He placed the bottle on her vanity, and the bras under her bed. "I doubt she wants these sitting out for everyone to see."

Next he moved onto Blake. The first thing he withdrew was a pack of books. "The Ninjas of love super collection?" Out of curiosity he picked out one of the books, titled _Ninjas of Love: Curse of the Dragon Dong_ , and opened it to a random page. He read about two lines before he shut it and placed the book with the others, his cheeks bright red. "Okay then..." He placed the book collection on the table next to Yang's shampoo, then reached in for the last item, now afraid of what he might be about to pull out.

And rightfully so he realized as he withdrew a massive, black...

"Oh, ew. ew ew ew ew ew ew ew." He placed it on Blake's bed under the covers and wiped his hands on his jeans. "That was..." he shuddered, "I didn't even know they made them that big."

Next he moved to Weiss' and Ruby's side of the room. He reached into the bag, and withdrew a weapons magazine titled _Velocity Vogue_ and... the exact same book as Pyrrha's. He winced. "I hope they don't like the same guy, I'd hate to see one of them get hurt." He placed both items on her vanity, then looked in the bag to see if there was anything else. He pulled out a scope, presumably for Crescent Rose, and a pack of cookies. Then another pack of cookies. And another. Then another.

five minutes later Ruby and Weiss's side of the room was filled with packs of cookies. "I feel like letting her keep these is a bad idea." Then again it _was_ Ruby, literally the sweetest person he knew. He was sure Yang would keep Ruby from eating all of the sweets at once, though he didn't envy her the task.

Last but certainly not least was Weiss. She was sleeping peacefully in her bed, her snow white hair splayed out in a halo around her head. Jaune took a second to take in the beautiful sight before he reached in the bag for her present. He withdrew...

Oh.

Jaune's cheeks turned red. It was a body pillow. Of himself. With no shirt on. His thumbs were hooked in the waist band of his jeans, which were unbuttoned and unzipped, giving the impression that he was on the verge of removing them. Jaune gulped and looked at Weiss, then back at the body pillow.

"Best Christmas ever," he whispered as he very carefully tucked it under the covers next to her, making sure it would be totally obscured so the others wouldn't see it. On an impulse Jaune bent down and kissed Weiss's forehead gently, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her head. "Merry Christmas Snow Angel," he whispered as he left the room.

Fast asleep and dreaming of a certain blonde knight, Weiss smiled.

* * *

"Cardin, this is taking too long." Russel said as they waited for Dove to leave the house he'd been tasked with ah... infiltrating. Yeah, infiltrating. That's what they were doing when they entered people's homes without permission.

"I know," Cardin sighed as he rubbed his forehead. They had been delivering presents for at least an hour, but they had made very little headway. There was no way they'd be able to finish the whole city before the sun rose at their current rate. Their plan had been to fly from residential area to residential area, landing in each one and each of them taking a house to 'infiltrate' and leave present before moving to the next one, but it was taking too long. They had entered houses from every possible way, from going through the chimney to jimmying windows opens. At one point they'd had to sneak in through a wine cellar. It had taken a lot of willpower on Cardin's part to leave out of there without taking a bottle with him.

"There's gotta be a faster way to do this," Sky said as Dove crawled back out the window he'd gone in from and made his way over to them. "I wish we could just magically transport the presents from the sleigh, or something like that."

Cardin rubbed his chin. "Hmmm." He looked at the sleigh, ignoring the angry look Talon sent his way, and back at their magic bags. "Maybe there is a way..."

* * *

"You want us to what?!" screamed Dove over the howling wind as they circled around an apartment complex.

"Throw the presents through the window!" Cardin shouted back. "We have to do this quicker than we have been, and this is the only way we can!"

"You're insane!"

"Do you have a better idea? Because I'd love to hear it!"

"I..." Dove looked at the present in his hand and groaned. "Fine." he turned on his heel and launched the present as hard as he could. It flew true and smashed through the window of the apartment he'd been aiming for. He winced. "Sorry people who live there..."

The four boys swooped through Vale, launching presents through windows with unerring accuracy. They left a trail of shattered glass and insurance claims in their wake, but their presents had been delivered, and that was what counted.

At least, until they reached the faunus slums.

"Damn," Ruseel whispered as he gazed at the ramshackle buildings below. "I never realized..."

The houses were houses in the absolute loosest sense of the word. Even from as high up as they were Cardin could tell that they were dilapidated wrecks. Some looked like they had been cobbled together with whatever the builders had had on hand at the time with little rhyme or reason.

With a sigh Sky picked up a present to throw it, but stopped when Cardin grabbed his arm. "No, not here. These people have enough to deal with. We're not making it any worse for them. We'll land and distribute the presents on foot, even if that means it'll put us over time."

The sleigh landed and the boys of CRDL hopped out, their bags in hand. They went from house to house, sneaking in through doors with flimsy and easily jimmied open locks and windows that didn't shut or lock properly. It went smoothly. They were quiet and made sure not to knock anything over when putting presents under trees, and made sure they closed the way they had come in.

At least, until one house...

It appeared to be the same as all the others. Though run down and dilapidated it was clear the owners worked hard to keep it neat and clean. The small yard was freshly mowed, and colorful flowers were planted in a small patch of soil in front of the porch. The door opened with a bit of a push from Cardin, and he quietly entered, looking around to be sure there was no one awake. Satisfied, he made his way over to the skinny tree sitting in the corner of the room. Half of the lights wrapped around the sickly evergreen weren't working, and there were few ornaments hanging from the tree, but they looked to be homemade items that obviously had a lot of sentimental value to the family that lived here.

He knelt before the tree and reached into the bag. He pulled out the first present, a children's book, and set it under the tree. When he looked up a particular ornament caught his eye. It was a picture set in a snowflake. The picture was dated as having been taken many years ago, a year before Cardin himself had been born. In the picture was a baby faunus girl with rabbit ears. She was holding a stuffed animal in her hands and looked like the happiest child in the world. Cardin smiled at the picture of the adorable little girl. Then his eyes drifted higher and he read the title above the picture.

 _"Velvet's first Christmas!"_

The ginger paled. As though on cue the lights in the living room turned on.

"C-Cardin?"

Slowly the squire turned to look behind himself. Sure enough Velvet was standing behind him, dressed in a modest pink night gown that reached down her arms and well below her knees with her brown hair a complete mess. One of her rabbit ears was pointing straight up, while the other was drooping down.

"Um... hey, Velvet..."

* * *

Nathaniel sighed as he reached the last of the faculty's rooms. His fellow teachers were... well to put it quite simply, they were _weird_. Professor Oobleck had gotten what must have been a couple hundred pounds of premium coffee beans, Ozpin had gotten the exact same thing, Professor Peach had gotten stacks of jars of preserved peaches and _tree sap_ of all things, and Port...

He shuddered. The less said about what Port had gotten, the better.

But now there was only one room left. Glynda's.

He gulped. He loved Glynda, but of all the rooms in Beacon hers was the one he feared entering uninvited. If she found him in her quarters he'd have no good explanation for why he was there, even if he explained the whole "killing Santa" thing. Though most people didn't know it the deputy Headmistress of Beacon loved Christmas. If she ever found out he'd killed Santa, even by accident, then her breaking up with him would be the least of his worries.

As quietly as possible Nathaniel opened the door to her room and shut it behind himself. Her living room was the exact same as the living rooms of the other teachers' quarters, barring any personal touches she'd added. In the center of the room was a good sized Christmas tree decorated with lights and ornaments of every hue. He walked over to the tree and opened the bag to withdraw her presents.

He didn't see the door to Glynda's bedroom open.

Nathaniel rooted around in the bag, a frown creasing his face. "Where's her present?"

"Well well," a soft and familiar voice crooned as a pair of slender arms wrapped around Nathaniel's neck from behind. "What have we here?"

Nathaniel froze.

 _"I'm so dead."_

But Glynda didn't attack him, or even ask what he was doing in her quarters. Instead she caressed his cheek with one hand as the other drifted lower.

Nathaniel squeaked as her hand went below the waistline.

"Mmm, looks like Santa got me _exactly_ what I wanted for Christmas..."

* * *

"Where is he?" Jaune growled as he paced back and forth in the courtyard. He had completed his part of Beacon and was waiting for Nathaniel to show up, but Jaune had been waiting for fifteen minutes and the knight wasn't answering his scroll. Jaune sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I'll just have to go and cover his side. I'll probably run into him at some point."

So onward Jaune went to the dorms of the students visiting from the other academies. He went from room to room delivering presents and Christmas joy, only once being nearly decapitated by a Santa trap. He delivered the presents of team SSSN, though he had to resist the urge to burn Neptune's own body pillow of Weiss. From top to bottom he went delivering presents, until there was only one team left...

* * *

For years Cinder Fall had gotten coal for Christmas.

And not just a few lumps of coal, oh no, she got _coal._ For years now she had awoken to virtual mountains of coal stacked in her room. Everything was covered in coal dust, even the slightest wrong move could send a pile of the stuff tumbling down on her. Though to be fair everyone in the Grimmlands got coal for Christmas, even Salem. It was inevitable that when they awoke Christmas morning the whole of Salem's tower would be covered in coal, both inside and out.

But no more! No, this time Cinder wasn't getting coal. She was going to capture that fat red bastard this year, and make him give her the present she'd wanted for years, even if she had to torture it out of him.

No matter what, Cinder was getting her baby alive doll...

The door to her room creaked open. Cinder laid totally still and silent in her bed, pretending to sleep so as to not alert her greatest foe to her presence. Emerald and Mercury remained sleeping, but she didn't need them for this. She'd have him all to herself.

The first thing Cinder thought as Santa entered the room was that he was a lot skinnier than she had thought he would be, and she meant _a lot_. Though she could make out nothing beyond a silhouette in the darkness of her room it was clear Santa was in great shape, but he was wearing that ridiculous red hat and had a sack slung over his shoulder, so it had to be him.

The jolly red man stopped in the middle of the room and peered inside the open sack, likely to dig her coal out.

 _"Not this time old man..."_

Silent as death itself, Cinder arose from her bed, sword in hand, and crept over to Jolly Saint Nick, who was muttering to himself in what seemed to be confusion.

The sack began rumbling.

"Uh-oh," Santa said as the bag began shaking all the more violently. Though his voice sounded far younger than Cinder would have thought, she didn't have time to think on it as coal spewed out of the bag in a raging torrent.

Santa screamed as the force of the coal flying out of the bag launched him backwards into the door. Within seconds the whole room was swallowed by the tidal wave of coal, Emerald and Mercury screaming in confusion as they were pelted awake by the black chunks. For her part Cinder howled in frustration as she went down under the coal and Santa beat a hasty retreat out of her room.

* * *

Jaune coughed up a lung full of coal dust as he slammed the door shut behind himself. "The hell just happened?!"

He didn't know what those students had done to deserve _that_ and he wasn't keen to find out. He decided it would be best to beat a hasty retreat before that team dug their way through the coal to the door, and so he took off at a run down the hallway to the next set of dorm rooms.

He wondered where Nathaniel was and hoped his mentor was alright, unaware that the grizzled knight was getting the best Christmas present he'd ever received.

* * *

"So uuuuuh..." Cardin laughed nervously, "what brings you here, Velvet?"

"This is my mother's mother's house Cardin. I'm spending Christmas break here. If anything I should ask what _you_ are doing here."

"Uh..." He thought fast, "I'm... breaking in and stealing your stuff?" The ginger boy winced. Maybe he should have put more effort into the thinking part than the fast part of thinking fast.

"Normally burglars don't leave things under Christmas trees," the faunus girl pointed out. She sighed. "What are you _really_ doing here?"

She was tense and alert, he could tell. While she hadn't taken a fighting stance or actually attacked him Cardin realized that the slightest mistake on his part could change that. He sighed and held up the magic sack. "Would you believe me if I said I'm here to save Christmas?"

As quickly as he could Cardin explained what had happened to poor Saint Nick, and why he and his team were trying to save Christmas.

"So," the rabbit faunus said, "let me get this straight. Sir Nathaniel accidentally murdered Santa..."

"Yup."

"So the six of you decided you had to save Christmas..."

"Yup."

"And you and your team stole his sleigh..."

"I wouldn't say _steal_ per se..."

"And have been flying around the city lobbing presents through windows..."

"In our defense it was the only way we could finish before the sun rose."

"And you actually expect me to believe _any_ of this?"

"I can prove it," he said defensively as he held up the sack and shook it meaningfully.

Velvet's raised eyebrow showed just how unimpressed she was. "The bag is empty, Cardin."

"Not for long." Cardin reached into the bag. "For Christmas you wanted... a make up kit." He pulled out the make up kit and set it to the side. "A..." he looked up at her with a raised eyebrow. "A carrot cake? Really?"

Velvet's cheeks were dusted with pinks as she looked away and shuffled her feet. "I like cake, and I like carrots, sue me."

The squire shrugged and put the cake to the side before reaching back in. "And you also got..." he pulled a book out. "One hundred and one ways to show him you're the one?"

Velvet lunged forward and yanked the book out of his hands, her face aflame. "Nothing! It's nothing!"

"O-kay..." He said slowly. "Well, do you believe me now?"

The bunny Faunus sighed and nodded, her ears bobbing up and down. "Yes, unfortunately. Gods, I can't believe Santa is dead..."

"You're not the only one," Cardin said with a stressed chuckle. He pulled his scroll out to check the time. "Hey, I've got to get moving. We still have a lot of houses to cover." He turned to the tree and put the other presents under it. When he was done he stood and turned around-

As a pair of slender arms wrapped around his midsection.

"Thank you," Velvet whispered as she released him and stepped back. "Thank you for all of this." She was staring intently at the floor, but Cardin could tell her face was bright red. "The old you... He never would have done something like this for anyone." She looked up at him, her face still red, but she was smiling. "You've changed a lot in these past few months, Cardin. I... I like it."

As the two stared at each other Cardin realized for the first time that Velvet was... actually very pretty. He couldn't believe he hadn't seen it before.

He felt ashamed at the way he'd treated her in the past just because of her race.

Neither realized they had closed the distance between them until only a scant half a foot remained.

Neither realized they were beginning to lean closer to each other...

And something flew out of the bag between them. Both yelped and leaped back and looked up to see whatever it was that was now lodged in the roof.

A piece of mistletoe.

"O-Oh..." whispered Velvet, her cheeks turning a shade of red that would have made Ruby's cloak weep in despair if it was capable of weeping, or feeling despair.

"I-I'll just get rid of that," Cardin mumbled as he plucked the mistletoe off the roof and tossed it in the corner.

Another piece, identical to the last one, flew out of the bag and embedded itself in the roof. Grumbling under his breath and his face growing as red as his sack Cardin reached up to pluck the piece down.

"W-wait!"

Cardin looked down at Velvet, confused. "What?"

"W-well it's just..." She stared at her own bare feet, her arms clasped behind her back as she shuffled nervously. "It's a Christmas tradition, right? To k-kiss under the mistletoe and... stuff."

Slowly but surely Cardin's hand drifted away from the mistletoe. "Y-yeah, I suppose it is."

She looked up at him, a fire in her eyes he'd never seen before. "So it doesn't have to mean anything, right? Us ki-kissing, I mean. I'ts just observing tradition and all, right?"

"Right," Cardin nodded emphatically. "Should we... observe this tradition?"

"I... maybe. If you want to, that is."

"I would! Erm, I mean, I'm cool with it if you are and all."

"I am if you are."

Cardin gulped. "W-well I guess we should just... do it then?"

"I guess so..." Slowly Cardin and Velvet closed the distance between themselves again, directly under the mistletoe. They drifted closer, both nervous and uncertain, but neither wanting to back away.

Closer and closer they came, until only scant inches separated their lips...

Until Velvet happened to catch a glimpse of movement through her half lidded eyes and hopped back with a scream that was muffled by her hand over her mouth.

Cardin spun on his heel with his hand on his mace, ready to draw it and strike at the slightest provocation.

He hopped back too as he saw Dove, Russel, and Thrush leaning on the window sill, their head resting on their arms and their lips curled upwards in victorious grins. "Guys?!"

"Oh by all means," Russel said, "don't let us stop you. It was just getting good."

"A Christmas tradition and all," chimed in Dove.

"I wasn't- we weren't- that is to say-" Cardin looked at Velvet hoping for some support from the faunus girl, but she had pulled her rabbit ears down over her eyes and looked like she was trying to sink into her nightgown. He looked back at the boys. "Nothing happened!"

Sky sighed dramatically. "Unfortunately," he held up his scroll, "I was going to record the whole thing so I could show it to everyone at your wedding."

Cardin's teeth ground together. "Guys..." he growled dangerously.

Russel held up his hands in surrender. "Okay, okay we're done. Kiss your girlfriend goodbye, we've already gotten this area taken care of and are ready to move onto the next one." The three boys trotted over to the sleigh.

"She not my girlfriend!" he shouted at their retreating backs, but got no response. "Stupid brothers and their stupid misreading the situation..." He turned back to Velvet, who was peeking out at him from under one ear. He scratched the back of his head. "Um... I should go. Lots of houses left to cover and all..."

Velvet nodded, but didn't say anything.

Cardin walked to the door, ran face first into it, then stepped back and remembered that he had to actually open it before stepping outside. As he opened the door he heard Velvet mumble, "bye Cardin... thank you for the presents."

The squire smiled. "Anytime Velvet. Have a merry Christmas."

He hopped into the sleigh and grabbed Talons reigns. They flew off into the Christmas sky with the other three boys of CRDL singing a merry tune.

"Cardin and Velvet sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-"

"WOULD YOU ALL SHUT UP?!"

* * *

Jaune groaned as he sank down onto the lip of the fountain in the Beacon courtyard. "Oh Holy Lady, my feet are _killing_ me."

He'd had to walk the entirety of the Beacon campus to deliver the presents since Nathaniel was down for the count. As Jaune had gone from dorm to dorm delivering presents he had grown concerned that something bad had happened to Nathaniel, but when he'd reached the teachers quarters and heard all of the various and sundry obscene noises coming from Mrs. Goodwitch's room, it hadn't taken Jaune long to piece two and two together.

Suffice to say, Nathaniel was having a _far_ better Christmas than Jaune so far.

And he'd gotten done just in time too. The rays of the sun were beginning to peek over the horizon, providing dim illumination to Jaune's surroundings.

The Champion of Lady sighed in bliss, closed his eyes, and leaned back on his arms, letting the sunlight wash over him and fill his tired body with a new vigor he sorely required. "Who needs energy drinks when you can be solar powered?"

Jaune's eyes snapped open as he felt a familiar presence brush his mind. "Talon?" Team CRDL must have finished with Vale. At least Jaune hoped that was the case.

As they drew closer Jaune could see the Gryphon pulled sleigh and fully register the thoughts of his war beast. They were... not what he expected them to be.

 _"-Sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G! First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes Velvet with a baby carriage!"_

Jaune's eyebrows threatened to join his hairline. _"I'm sorry, what?"_

 _"Oh, hello Jaune! You should get Sky, Dove, and Russel to tell a most amusing story of what happened in the Faunus slums. It's sure to bring a tear of mirth to your eye."_

Jaune sighed and shook his head. _"Something tells me I don't want to hear it. Did you get presents delivered to everyone in Vale?"_

 _"Of course we did. Just... ignore anything you hear on the news about a spree of broken windows."_

Jaune groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose as the sleigh landed and the four boys disembarked. "Guys... through the windows, really?"

Cardin shrugged. "It was the fastest way we could do it. I'm sure insurance will cover the damage."

"I doubt most insurance companies have a Santa clause."

The four boys and the Gryphon stared at him. "Please tell me that pun was intentional," Sky said.

"No, but I wish it had been."

They all laughed as they began working to cover up their Santa impersonation. The sleigh was taken to the Emerald forest and hidden in the old Death stalker cave. Talon got his Christmas wish, as the five boys didn't have time to bury the body. Though the Gryphon was courteous enough to fly away to enjoy his meal, instead of traumatizing them. Jaune and team CRDL said their goodbyes and retreated to their respective dorms.

The exhausted squire stripped off his armor and changed into his sleeping clothes, ready to grab as much rest as he could before Nora woke up and inevitably woke the rest of them up.

He crawled under the covers, stretched, and yawned as he drifted off to sleep and his eyes softly closed...

Then promptly snapped open as a sudden and horrifying thought occurred to him.

"Oh fuck me, we'll have to do this again next year."

* * *

 **And that's a wrap! Wrapping paper that is! HA HA I'm not apologizing for that one!**

 **I hope you all enjoyed this story and I hope it brought you some holiday joy, regardless of whether you celebrate Christmas or any other holiday this time of year.**

 **This story was inspired by Cour Al'Aran's Christmas one shot, "Professor Arc: The Night before Christmas". If you haven't read it before I strongly suggest you all go read it, as it's guaranteed to bring a smile to your face. I've even put some references to Cour's one shot in this story. Anyone who finds them gets an imaginary Christmas cookie!**

 **Since I'm sure many of the people reading this have probably read "Jaune Arc, Gryphon Knight," I'd like to explain why the latest chapter of GK is taking so long.**

 **First off I want to stress that it _is_ underway. I am working on it, and have recently made some very good headway on it, however it's not done yet. If all goes to plan, and it looks like it is *knocks on wood* it's going to be quite the long chapter, which is one of the reasons why it's been taking me so long.**

 **Another reason is quite simply that for a long while I was hit with a bad case of writer's block and was stuck for awhile. It didn't help that where I ended the previous chapter felt kind of odd and made writing the beginning of the next chapter, the one currently underway, rather difficult and feeling forced. Originally the chapter currently being worked on was supposed to pick up right where the previous one left off, but it just didn't _feel_ right. No matter how I wrote it it came out feeling forced and just overall not good. So instead of slamming my head into a brick wall I decided to bypass the wall altogether and put in a time skip between the chapters. It's nothing major, just a few weeks, but it gave me the flexibility to make good solid headway on the chapter that I actually like. **

**Also it _probably_ didn't help that I got a second job and have basically been working my ass off since November. Hey, gotta make that money somehow.**

 **If you liked this story then please feel free to follow and favorite it! I plan to put one one Gryphon Knight Christmas one shot every year on Christmas day, so when I do I'll upload it on this story, so this will basically become a collection of non canon one shots. If you have questions, suggestions, or just want to tell me what you thought of this story then feel free to leave a review or PM me! If you have a friend who likes RWBY and RWBY fanfictions then feel free to suggest this story and all of my other stories to them! I love you all, and hope you have a holly jolly Christmas (or Hanukkah, or Kwanzaa (did I spell that right?) or whatever it is you celebrate this year)!**

 **BYYYYYEEEEEEEEE!**


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